


I Believe You

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Series: Guardian 'Verse [2]
Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Recalled to life, Sadness, The OC is only in this story, guardian verse, please read despite it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 17:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8455951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: A child is lost in the Unknown. The Guardian of the Unknown helps her home.





	

Samantha, or as she answered to Sam, cried, her small mouth trembling with suppressed wails. She was only nine and she had no idea where she was. She tripped over the roots of a tree and lay there, staring up through teary eyes and fall leaves at the blue sky beyond the forest.

She couldn't quite remember what had happened. Her mother and father had been with her, smiling. They had told Sam to hold their hands tightly because they were going to cross the road now. Sam remembered seeing a butterfly.... And then, someone screaming and then nothing.

Sam sighed and wiped her eyes before sitting up. Her father always said that if she were lost, she just had to stay put and they would find her.

She sat and waited patiently, as she watched the birds fly and the shadows creep as the sun traveled across the crisp autumn sky. Something was telling her that it wasn't supposed to be autumn, because she did school in fall and she hadn't been doing school at all.

She ignored it and tried to enjoy the slight breezes that rustled the branches.

Something cracked behind her, and soft footsteps crunched on dead leaves. Sam stood up, smiling widely, her father and mother had found her! Sam turned towards the person walking to her, arms ready to hug them.

It was _not_ mother and father. It wasn't even human.

Sam screamed.

The monster jumped and drew back, hiding itself in the shadows of the trees, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! Please don't scream!"

She stopped abruptly because it was far to shocking to hear the beast speak like a person. In all the movies she'd seen the monster usually ate the person at this point or dragged them off to their lair. They didn't talk.

"Good. Now, my name is Wirt. What's yours?"

"Mom told me not to talk to strangers."

"Well, your mom is very smart. I'm um, I'm afraid that your mom isn't here though. I can take you to her."

Sam stepped back and shook her head full of tight black curls, "Uh-uh. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers or go anywhere with strangers or anything."

Wirt the monster sighed, "Well, I'm going to step into the light okay? Don't scream, please. It's just I can't see very well in the dark yet."

Sam nodded hesitantly, "Okay."

Wirt stepped forward and now that Sam could fully see him and was prepared for a ghastly creature, she could see that he wasn't quite as frightening as before. He was just a boy. He only looked to be as old as her brother Andrew.

He was dressed rather funny, with a tall red cap and a curious blue coat with big brass buttons. He held a lantern in his hand, the type of lantern she'd only seen her father take on campouts with her oldest brother.

The very oddest thing about Wirt was that he had two wooden antlers coming out of his head, like a deer did. There were a few branches curling around his arms and growing red leaves as if he were very slowly turning into a tree. His eyes had a slight glow to them, but it was hardly noticeable next to all of these other oddities.

Sam crossed her arms and asked tremulously, "W- what are you?"

"Oh, I'm the guardian of the Unknown."

"The Unknown?"

"This place is called the Unknown and I keep it safe."

"That's silly, a place can't be called the Unknown."

Wirt frowned, "Obviously it can, because it is called the Unknown."

Sam rubbed her small arms, "Well, I would very much like to go back to my mom."

Wirt nodded, "I told you, I can do that. Just follow my lantern's light and I will guide you home."

Sam nodded desperately, crossed her thin brown arms in front of her, and followed Wirt into the dark woods of the place he called the Unknown.

Everything got fuzzy about here, all she could remember was walking forever and ever. The trees swayed in the wind, their footsteps tramped in the dead leaves, and the sun set. All through it, her eyes never left the warm glow of the lantern. She never let it leave her sight. Soon she couldn't remember seeing any other surroundings but blackness and nothingness.

The lantern's light beckoned her on, whispering in the tall boy's voice, "Come on, Sam. Just a little farther! You can do it! You just have to be brave."

The lantern stopped moving and she did so too. Suddenly the lantern was gone and it wasn't the boy talking- her mother was now, "Please, darling. Please you just have to open those eyes. They say it's been too long and that... That we should cut you off. Please, Samantha, please wake up."

Her mother never used her full name unless she was in trouble. Sam paused, were her eyes even closed?

She found they were so she opened them and slowly blinked against the glare of bright lights. There was a sob and then someone was hugging her, "Oh, my baby! You woke up!"

Sam looked around. She was in a hospital. She'd been here when her youngest sister was born.

"Mom, what happened?"

Her Dad opened the door and came in with a weary face. He caught sight of Sam, awake and talking. He rushed forward and the scene was repeated. Sam couldn't help but feel a bit impatient. She wanted to know why her parents were crying.

"Oh, sweetheart, you were hit by a car and you've been asleep for a long while now."

Sam shook her head, "I wasn't asleep, Mom."

Her parents looked at each other. Her dad held her hand, "Sweetheart, you were asleep for two months-"

"But I wasn't! I was only gone for a day! At least, I- I think it was a day."

"Honey-"

"But I wasn't asleep!"

Her mother turned to her father, "Let me talk to her, Michael." He nodded, kissed Sam on the forehead and left the room. Sam wasn't quite ready for him go, as she was a little afraid that this was all a wonderful dream and she'd wake up in that eerie wood all alone again.

"Sweetheart-"

"But Mom, I... I was in a forest called something silly... Like um, the? Um... The thing...."

Her mother's chocolate eyes softened, "Sam, it's alright. It was probably just a dream. These things happen to people who are in a coma-"

Sam wanted her mother to understand, and it was then that she remembered, "It was called the Unknown!"

Her mother's eyes widened into large astonished circles, "What?"

"Yes and- and there was a boy and he helped me get home! He had a- a light and antlers and he guided me home with his lantern!"

Her mother took her hand, "Sam, where did you hear this?"

"Nowhere, mom, I swear! It was... It was the boy in the woods who told me."

"Boy?"

She smiled, "Yes, see? His name was something funny and he had a tall pointed hat and it was red- and a funny blue coat and he said his name was Wart."

She frowned, "Wort? No, it- it was Wirt and-"

Her mother's mouth opened in a soft oh. Samantha paused, "What mom?"

She smiled, her lips trembling and her eyes filling with tears, "I believe you, Sam. I- I just have to call someone. I'll get your father, just wait a minute." She pressed a soft kiss to her daughter's brow and stood up.

A few minutes later she was on the phone and waiting impatiently for the owner of the number to pick up. She got his answering machine, "Hello, this is Greg, aka that weirdo you see taking trips to the lake with rocks! Please leave a message at the sound of that annoying beep called the 'the tone!' I will get back to you! And that's a rock fact!"

The phone beeped and she sighed, "Greg, it's Sara. I- I... My daughter... Just come quickly. I think I believe you now. I think you're right."

She looked around, as if she couldn't believe she was saying this after all these years, "I believe that there really is a place called the Unknown."


End file.
